How Old Thanos Is In All Infinity Saga MCU Movies

How old is Thanos (Josh Brolin) in each Infinity Saga film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Thanos masterminded the very first world-threatening disaster that united Earth’s Mightiest Heroes in The Avengers, and was the main antagonist of the last two Avengers movies, which were the culmination of ten years of stories in the MCU.

In Marvel Comics, Thanos is a member of an immortal, superpowered race called the Eternals. Born and raised on Saturn’s moon, Titan, Thanos eradicated most of his people, developed an obsession with death, and battled superheroes like the Avengers, Captain Mar-Vell, Silver Surfer, and Adam Warlock. His history goes all the way back to his Marvel Comics debut in the pages of Iron Man #55 in 1973. After forming a rivalry with Mar-Vell, Thanos quickly evolved into one of Marvel’s greatest villains, a status that was cemented in the 1990s when he killed half of everyone in the universe in Infinity Gauntlet.

Thanos has a similar reputation in the Marvel movies, despite the fact that his existence remained a secret to most of the characters living on Earth until the events of Avengers: Infinity War. Though Thanos hasn’t been featured prominently in the movies preceding it, he’s been the man behind the curtain for quite some time now. Flashbacks and conversations between other characters have shed light on Thanos’ history and some of the things that he’s done in his long life as the Mad Titan. Here’s how old Thanos is in every Marvel movie that he’s appeared in.

The Avengers

Thanos made his shocking first MCU appearance in the post-credits scene of The Avengers when he was revealed to be the one who orchestrated the attack on Earth. This occurred at a time in Thanos’ life when he was already looking for the Infinity Stones. He knew at this point that the Space Stone was on Earth and was determined to retrieve it. Since this non-speaking cameo was filmed before Josh Brolin was officially cast as the character, Thanos was played by 32-year-old actor Damion Poitier. As for Thanos’ age, the character was already among the oldest being in the Marvel Universe, but not quite as ancient as Thor (Chris Hemsworth) or Odin (Anthony Hopkins). Joe Russo, one of the directors of Avengers: Endgame, has confirmed that Thanos is around 1,000 years old. He referred to Thanos as the “Genghis Khan of the universe” who has fought “everyone”.

Thanos being this old makes sense, especially if Marvel plans to connect him to the Eternals (who are joining the MCU in their own Phase 4 film in 2021). If Thanos, like his comic book counterpart, is a member of the Titanian Eternals, that would explain his colossal strength and impressive longevity.

Guardians of the Galaxy

Thanos returned for a much longer scene in Guardians of the Galaxy when he was approached by Ronan the Accuser (Lee Pace), who wanted to talk to him about Gamora’s decision to turn against them. In the movie, Thanos was after the Power Stone, and his plan was for Ronan to acquire it for him. Apparently, Thanos had diverted his attention from the Space Stone on Earth, and had decided to go back for it in the future. The conversation between Thanos and Ronan in Guardians of the Galaxy occurred two years after the failed invasion of Earth. This was also the first time in which Thanos was played by Josh Brolin, who was 46-years-old when the movie released.

Avengers: Age of Ultron

Very little changed for Thanos in the gap between Guardians of the Galaxy and his third live-action appearance in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Age of Ultron took place only one year later. Unlike the situation with the first installment, the conflict that played out in the sequel wasn’t Thanos’ doing. In a post-credits scene, Thanos was seen putting on the Infinity Gauntlet. This means that Thanos had just succeeded in forcing the Dwarves of Nidavellir to build him a weapon powerful enough to wield the six Infinity Stones. The circumstances behind this scene were revealed by Eitri’s account of how Thanos attacked and threatened them in Avengers: Infinity War.

By Age of Ultron, he was in process of following through on his master plan to gather all six Infinity Stones. Previously, Thanos had owned the Mind Stone, and had separate schemes to get his hands on the Space and Power Stones, but it would seem that Thanos had since reconsidered his intentions. He must have decided that he should get a weapon capable of holding all of them first, and then focus on finding the Stones later.

Avengers: Infinity War

Josh Brolin was 50 at the time that he reprised his role as Thanos in 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War, the movie that finally put all of Thanos’ plans into action. Thanos had aged six years since his cameo in The Avengers. When Infinity War kicked off, Thanos had already laid waste to Xandar and the Nova Corps in order to get the Power Stone. Over the course of the movie, the Mad Titan and the Black Order nearly brought the Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy to their knees and launched a full-scale assault on the well-defended kingdom of Wakanda. After several battles, Thanos was able to achieve his life goal and secure all six Infinity Stones. When Thanos snapped his fingers, Thanos wiped out half of the universe. This was something that he had always wanted, and had been working toward for an untold number of years. All his life, he had traveled across the universe, clearing out half of the population of each planet he came across. So for Thanos, a thousand years of fighting and killing was paid off when he was able to get the same results – but this time on a universal scale.

Avengers: Endgame

Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame were filmed back-to-back, but most of the story in the fourth film took place five years later. However, Thanos’ death occurred prior to the big time skip. Less than a full month after Infinity War, the thousand-year-old warrior destroyed the Infinity Stones to prevent them from ever being used again. He was living alone in his hut when he was confronted by an angry group of Avengers and subsequently killed.

The second version of Thanos – the one that battled the combined forces of the MCU at the end of the movie – is slightly younger than the Thanos from the present-day timeline. Specifically, he’s only two years older than he was when he was introduced in The Avengers since he’s from the same time period depicted in Guardians of the Galaxy. He was brought into the story during the Avengers' time travel mission. One of the stops was 2014, when the Power Stone was being sought after by Ronan the Accuser. Thanos learned of the heroes' intervention and followed them to the present, where they had their final showdown.

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